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Wednesday, August 13, 2014

ON DOUBT

[Part 3]

Doubt in the New
Testament

With all the previous talk about the value of doubt, you
might be thinking, but isn’t doubt a negative thing that is criticized in the
New Testament? Well, it does seem like that at first glance, but it turns out
the words translated “Doubt” are quite vague. Sometimes the English language
fails to communicate a concept and this is one of those instances. There are
multiple senses of the word in the ancient Greek, so it is no wonder there is
confusion.

The New Testament uses two words which are sometimes
translated doubt or doubting, which are transliterated as Distazo and Diakrino.
The first one, distazo, has a fairly clear meaning: to doubt or waver. The word
is found in Matthew 14:31 and 28:17. In the context of the passages, the idea
of “wavering” is a reconsidering of something which an individual has already
understood to be true or right. We experience this when we know what we ought
to do in a circumstance and come up with reasons not to or why it isn’t
important. It amounts to going against a truth one has previously understood,
or a lack of commitment or follow through in regard to a decision one
previously made. This is much different from lacking confidence about something
which one finds confusing or does not understand.

On the other hand, diakrino is much more complicated. There
are 15 forms of the word used among its 19 occurrences in the New Testament
(the different forms of the words refer to the different endings, which
indicate different senses of the word). The most common form, diakrinomenos,
occurs five times and is translated in the NASB version as: misgivings,
disputed, doubting and the one who doubts. But then there are 14 other forms of
the word, each which is used only once and the possible meanings, in addition
to the four already mentioned, include: to separate, to withdraw (in opposition
or by deserting), to hesitate, to discriminate, to make distinction, to oppose
(in principle), or to judge (in the positive – to discern, OR in the negative –
to view as superior). A sampling of the usage of diakrino is found in: Matthew
16:3; Acts 10:20, 11:2, 11:12; 1 Corinthians 4:7, 6:5; James 1:6, 2:4; Jude
1:9, 22 (NASB).

My intent is not to sort through each Greek word, but to
demonstrate that this concept is complicated and there is a lot more to it than
just applying the English word and meaning. The task of identifying the
intended implication or sense of the word can be quite involved.

A key point of interest here is that there is another word
available to the Biblical authors which means to be “at a loss” or “perplexed”
about something. The word Aporeo is used a number of times in the New
Testament, examples include: Mark 6:20, Luke 24:4, John 13:22, Acts 25:20, and
Gal 4:20. The word doubt in English constitutes a lack of confidence which is
most often related to confusion or a lack of understanding. This common meaning
of doubt is most consistent with Aporeo, which is never translated as “doubt”
or associated with a “do not.” Therefore, it would stand to reason that this is
not what the authors are referring to when they use the words Distazo or
Diakrino, otherwise they could have used the word Aporeo.

We also see a couple examples of individuals doubting within
the New Testament text. First there is the example of Thomas, one of the
disciples of Jesus, whose reaction to hearing that Jesus was alive was to
immediately express his “doubt.” This is understandable since he had just seen
Jesus put to death. However, we then see that Jesus is very gracious with him and
rather than chastising him, provides an answer to his skepticism. Based on
Thomas’ response, it is clear that his “doubts” were sincere, as he was willing
to accept the truth once it was shown to him.

Another example is found with the Bereans in Acts 17:11,
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica,
for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures
every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Upon hearing Paul’s claims about
Jesus, they didn’t just accept it blindly, but they wanted to know if it could
be true. They responded wisely, as their sincere doubt prompted them to seek a
better understanding, and we have no indication that Paul was displeased with
this.

These examples reveal the significance of the question of why
our doubts exist. Is it because we lack information or have unanswered
questions? Is it because we don’t want to accept something in particular? Is it
because the idea does not make sense or is confusing in itself? Is it because
the ramifications are inconvenient for us? In the case of Thomas and the Bereans,
we see that they sought out more information, because they desired to believe
in the true God and they responded appropriately to what they found.

False Impressions

It is not uncommon for someone who desires to follow Jesus
to feel like God must be disappointed in them because of doubts they
continually have, or even due to an occasional doubt. It likely comes back to
the misunderstanding of the word “doubt” in the English translation of the New
Testament.

Perhaps it could make sense to say that God is disappointed
in us if we don’t care about our questions or desire to understand the
difficult aspects of faith that we find confusing. Perhaps God is disappointed
when we don’t take our faith seriously, or we make excuses for not living
accordingly. But He is not disappointed because we don’t understand something
or experience a lack of confidence about a particular idea or claim. As we see
with Thomas, Jesus responds with an answer, not with disappointment or
criticism.

But where did we get the idea that everything within Christianity
should be as clear as we want it to be? Where did we get the idea that it would
be easy to understand? Of course some
things are simple, thankfully, but if everything about the Christian Faith was perfectly
clear because it was just simple, then how would Christianity remain
interesting for a lifetime? What should we expect from a system of thought that
reveals the nature of God and touches on important aspects of life at the
same time?

If it was all easily understood, then we would be inclined
to think that we had it all figured out. This would be understandable since
there wouldn’t be any difficult ideas or confusing concepts to struggle with.
However, there would also be little reason for study and few insights to be had
about such simple ideas.

On the other hand, if God understands that some aspects of
the Faith are difficult to understand and that people have misunderstandings
for many different reasons, then why would He be disappointed when we
experience doubts? Doesn’t God know that many of us are not aware of the
archaeological evidence, or the Greek, or the historical and cultural context of
first century Rome, etc.? Then it seems to me God would want us to look into
the things we have questions about in order to reach a better understanding.

But maybe there is something else going on here as well.
Could it be that God does not want us to have a sense of self–sufficiency even
in our own understanding? I have come to understand many things over the years,
but so often it is because of the insights of others that have shed light on
something or helped me see more of the big picture.

Could there be something more to the quest for answers than
simply getting an answer? Could it be like a team sport, where there is so much
more to the journey than simply winning a game?

If our faith has no room for doubt, then it is likely that
we will not grow much in our understanding of the Christian Faith – or the true
God – because we will not be looking for answers. In order to be realistic, of
course we don’t want to be questioning constantly and we need time to just be
where we are in our faith, so it is important to have times without doubt. We
also hope to feel close to God at times, however, we need times where we are
prompted to wonder and seek out a better understanding. Therefore, as we
encounter periods of doubt, these are times which are necessary for us to
develop both our understanding and greater confidence in our faith.